German Auslegeschrift No. 2626631 (which is believed to correspond to U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,767) discloses a plug connector for a flat cable in which in the middle part of each contact element is bent as required to compensate for the differential spacing of the individual wires of the flat cable compared to the spacing of the contact elements of the connector. The contact elements, before being inserted into the contact chambers in an insulating body of the connector, must either be bent individually for each contact chamber into the proper shape for use, or, on the other hand, be shaped with the correct bending for a particular contact chamber and grasped by a complicated mounting tool for insertion into the contact chamber. No provision is made for bending the contact elements after installation in the contact chambers. This prior art plug connector is relatively difficult to manufacture because of the need to either individually shape the contact elements or the need for a complicated mounting tool to correctly insert the many possible different shapes of mass-produced contact elements. A further disadvantage of this plug connector occurs in the fact that its middle part must be constructed quite elongated so that it can be properly bent. This results in an unduly large plug connector.
Another disadvantage of this prior art plug connector resides in the fact that the contact elements lying in the center of the contact panel are longer than the contact elements lying on the edges of the contact panel. This results from the varied degree of bending required of the middle parts of the connectors to place the contact parts and the connecting parts in the appropriate serviceable positions. Thus, either the plug elements in the insulating body must be arranged in an arch so as to place their connecting ends on a plane or conversely the connecting ends must be arranged in an arch so as to place the plug elements on a plane. In the event the connecting ends do not lie on a plane, the connecting wires must be pushed to varying degrees into the terminals resulting in contacting forces of varying magnitudes and concomitant varying contact resistence between the contacting elements and the connecting wires. In the event that the contacting elements are placed on a plane to avoid the aforementioned problem, then the contact elements do not lie on a plane and varying degrees of contact occur. This results in large tolerances for the depth of insertion of the male contact parts into the female contact parts so that the desired margin of safety for contact insertion may not be met.
An electrical contact installation is described in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2737328 (which is believed to correspond to U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,616), in which the contact components have, in each case, an elongated bendable shank which is located between the contact part and the connecting part. The distance between the contact part and the connecting part is relatively long which results in a plug of relatively large size and the concomitant need for an increased amount of space to set it into its serviceable position.
There is also known a plug connector in which the middle part of the contact elements must be individually bent into the desired form for use by means of a rather complicated tool either before or after insertion into the assigned contact chambers. Subsequent adjustment of the bending of such contact elements is not possible.
It was, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide an electric connector for a flat cable which can be produced more simply and more economically than prior art connectors. It was another object to provide a plug connector for a flat cable having a shorter overall length than prior art connectors and to provide a plug connector which may be produced with fewer mechanical operations than required to produce prior art connectors. It was a further object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector for a flat cable having provisions for automatically spacing the connecting part of the contact elements to the spacing of the conductors in the flat cable by means of simple open dies in preferably a single pressing operation.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. The electric plug connector for a flat cable includes an insulating body having contact chambers therein for receiving electrical contact elements. Each electrical contact element has a contact part for making contact with other connectors, a middle part and coupled to the contact part a connecting part coupled to the middle part, the connecting part being adapted to make contact a conductor in the flat cable. After a contact element has been inserted into a contact chamber, its connecting part is bent around an axis which is essentially parallel to the major axis of the contact part of the contact element.